Tech will have life sooner than we think...
Note that, in my focus on "Ignorant" and "making better decisions"... I mentioned the difference between what "biologists" figured out in GMO/biotech... that, there's no reason to hurry into doing things that we know we don't understand well enough. Humanity, however long we've been around... can wait another 50 years... not rushing into genetically re-engineering everything we can... and then regretting it ?
But, there's a cultural divide between that approach... and "tech nerds"... who (other than in monopoly control to maximize lifetime flows of $ from limiting competition in product) have no off switch... no throttle that allows optimizing speed to better address need... and no focus on "need" other than their own in "succeeding" in the next IPO. Etc.
That its the "tech" paradigm dominating the sudden awareness that "progress" ha occurred in AI... to the degree that it appears clearly set to enable a new "internet-like" transformation... just as we're beginning to recognize some of the "less good" impacts that the internet enables... if we fail to manage it properly ?
In one of my "past lives"... plugged into the VC world... close to the beating heart of "tech"... and doing "cutting edge" work enabling much of what exists, now... or, much that others are only now beginning to imagine, but, perhaps, will sooner than expected, become aware of...
I ran across one fellow who was thoroughly convinced that the pace of development in understanding genetics would mean... sooner than later... we would be using it to enable "advancements" as necessary to extend our reach... So, as we reach out to become "an interplanetary species"... and learn how to navigate between the stars... or find it useful to think about moving from the land back below the surface of the sea...
it was only natural that we would manipulate human genetics... as, space travel would be better/easier if we engineered astronauts to be 1/4 the size of normal humans... or, if we took the "pattern" that defines the functional biology of a dolphin... and superimposed our uniquely human elements over top of that...
And, here on earth, too... there are lot of jobs that might best be suited to someone we had designed and engineered to have that particular form or ability that job requires ? God-like ability... enabling God-like decision making... ? Doesn't mean that those pushing such are God-like in qualification ? He had no qualms about... well, yeah... if I create that in a lab... then I own it... (not in the sense of IP... but in the sense of owning people... or, whatever you call them... that result.) Cloning and "human engineering" research have tested limits in what we're willing to accept as "moral" a time or two already... but, limits that do exist... do not obviate the fact there are people without any morality... who may occasionally find ways around those rational limits others try to impose ?
"Gain of function" research is one such "obvious" thing... where people without self limits... have avoided others imposition of limits... as they desperately seek unique "advantage" over others by taking chances near the limits others won't approach. So, not possible to say "it won't happen"... given it has... And all that's different in what we're discussing now is... "gain of function"... in something other than a virus ? And, that clearly is the point... of all traditional breeding... and all GMO... is to win advantages from the effort made to "improve" a plant... or, now... stick a jellyfish gene into a goat to make it glow in the dark... because we can...
Killer Robots isn't a new idea... has been in popular media for a while now... deep cultural awareness of the risks hopefully able to ensure "limits" apply in work that moves toward enabling that... as, reality is, we already have all the technology required to make it happen... have had for a long time... and it is only some element in intrinsic caution that prevents them existing now... (as far as we know.) Its often discussed as a risk that has to meet limits at "man in the loop" control being sustained... which is still sort of missing the point in just assuming that the "man in the loop"... will be the right man.... and the one you want there ?
Observing Russian decision-making and performance on the battlefield in Ukraine... shouldn't give any warm fuzzy in relation to expectations in benefits resulting from "man in the loop" ? I'd much rather have a Killer Robot (given I'm probably not going to be able to stop them)... with AI enabled logic that prevents it going stupid... so that it imposes a moral limit on itself... even when I can't trust that the human in the loop will do that... rather than kill people indiscriminately... as humans are doing every day in Ukraine, right now?
AI forces an awareness of those issues... the awareness an opportunity... but, those issues ALREADY exist... AI isn't creating them... rather than holding up a mirror... so that we can see ourselves... in new ways... But, of course, making the wrongchoices... already the topic I've been addressing... will mean pairing up Robotics... with Weapons... and AI... and a lack of reason and morality...
Still meaning it is humans... not Robots or AI... making the obvious mistake you can see coming from here... as a future (final) installment in "Great Moments in Unintended Consequences".
Each of those issues, mentioned above as... "biology"... "tech"... also contains no natural limits ?
So, if the above isn't scary enough... with added awareness that the biologists deliberate pairing of reason and morality... still failed to prevent Gates/Fauci from paying their way around it... to impose "tech" focus over top of it... to give us a Star Belly Sneetches pairing of gain of function in Covid and killer faux vaccines... manipulating people's genes, not challenging their immunity... for their profit ?
And, resistance to that insanity... only convincing them they have to do more to force you to comply ?
Well, then... you're going to love the reality that "convergence" is a thing... genetic manipulation of biology... not having any boundary that prevents its being adapted to "tech"... in tech.... as tech... ?
As "they" have escaped rational control... keep proving it every day... "expect more"... that shouldn't be.
"They"... not only embody massive potential for future ongoing flows of "Greatest Moments in Unintended Consequences"... they PERSONIFY it as themselves BEING an "unintended consequence"...
Declaring war on Ignorance... seems far more useful than declaring wars on poverty, drugs, terrorism, or any of the other distractions manufactured to focus us on "consequences" of their poor decision making, rather than on the causes of it... |
